by Patrick L. Cahalan

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So here’s a post on the small things that add up, or, How To Remove Annoying Stuff That Buggers Up Your Photo.

On the left is the original. Nice, but not really what I wanted in this shot of the Parthenon. So what to do?

I could have taken a tripod, hidden until after nightfall, gotten the shot on a long exposure, dodged the authorities, and not gone to jail in Greece and had a crapton of explaining to do on why I was not back at work a few days later.

Or, PhotoShop. A coin-flip, really.

The steps I actually took here were:

Remove the scaffolding. This was the nastiest, and took a LOT of small-scale clone/copy work to remove. Even so, if you look closely on the left you’ll see some repeated patterns that aren’t really natural, but can escape if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Remove the humans. They’re just clutter!

Punch up the contrast on the marble in the foreground, so the Greek lettering stand out better.

Deepen the blue in the skies. I did this by pushing the cyan tones into the blue range.

Brighten the green on the grass on the ground.

Reverse-fade out the marble, which at intermediate stages had gotten overly beige and not as stark and wind-washed as it ought to be.

Here’s a smattering of paintings that I got (semi) decent shots of while I was at the Vatican. Starting with one of my personal favorites, the School of Athens. If you’re got the time, go on Google and look up which Athenians were modeled on which famous Italians of the time … a hint, the big fish, center left, was based on Leonardo da Vinci.

This is a MUCH older piece, from centuries before the Italian Renaissance. You can see it in the two-dimensional character of the work; clearly perspective hadn’t been developed to the same level at that point.

And here’s a piece that I liked as well. Not all that interesting in its own right, but I like the use of color and perspective in it.

Pope Somebody-or-Other

Chow Time

Another classic, the Last Supper – except that this one is by Raphael, not da Vinci (his is in Milan). This, and a lot of these, were real SOBs to get a good photo of, and it took a lot of sharpening and noise reduction in PhotoShop to get some results – and I still wasn’t happy with a lot of it. The lighting in many of these galleries is dim, to better preserve the art, and flash photography is a big no-no. And breaking rules is, well, a bad idea to put it mildly. After all they have those nice Swiss guards with sharp objects, and their own jail. Plus, y’know, the threat of damnation and all that.

Conquest of Paganism

I love the minimalist nature of this. An old broken sculpture in front of a crucifix; it tells a story, but does it without distractions.

Throwdown

And now an action piece – Emperor Constantine triumphing over his foes!

Here’s a couple of shots of some sculptures in the museums and grounds of the Vatican. This one to start was pilfered from Egypt. Theft is kind of a theme with Vatican art – that or spending church money on it. See also the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square – not native to Italy, that’s for sure!

But still, the kitty is cute.

Vatican Sculpture II

Now on to Grecian and Greek-inspired art.

And here’s Hermes, a.k.a. Mercury for the Romans.

Vatican Sculpture IV

This one’s an odd piece of a piece, but I liked it. Next, some items from the pre-Roman, Etruscan era.

Vatican Sculpture V

This is a casket, but I particularly like the dog at the base of it. For being so-called primitive artists, it’s amazing how lifelike this is!

Vatican Sculpture VI

And this is the side of a piece of pottery. Not too fancy, but I liked the lion.

Next time, paintings from the Vatican, a.k.a. the more famous stuff. Plus an explainer on why photos are a mega-size no-no in the Sistine Chapel.

I visited here on a moody, grey-sky day, as you can see from the shot above. This spot deserves a lot more acclaim and recognition than it gets, at least in the USA (same goes for Turkey as a whole, and Istanbul in particular). It is a gorgeous work of architecture, both from the outside and within.

Blue Mosque II

It’s set at one end of a park, with the Hagia Sophia (built by the Roman Emperor Justinian) at the other end. The name Blue Mosque isn’t actually the official name – that’s the Sultahnamet mosque – it comes instead from the color of the tiles on the interior ceiling. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Blue Mosque III

Here’s the up-close view of the entrance leading to the park. In this instance the grey sky bothered me, so I fixed in photoshop to the sky I thought this photograph deserved.

Blue Mosque IV

See what I meant about blue tiles? Those come from the area of Iznik, in another part of Turkey. This is the underside of the central dome, with four mammoth pillars holding it up (called “Elephant Feet” colloquially).

Blue Mosque V

I got this shot from a nearby alcove where someone had left prayer beads on the rug. I like the simplicity here.

By the way, no shoes allowed inside (they give you a baggie for them, and have shelves to put them on). But the rug is wonderfully luxurious on your feet, which is especially a wonder given it’s trod upon by thousands of people every day.

Blue Mosque VI

This is the central worship area, off limits to bumbling tourists. At It functions not too differently from a church, except that folks sit on the carpet instead of in uncomfortable pews (the latter, I think was invented as a device of torment in the dark ages – at least carpet is cushioned!).

Blue Mosque VII

And finally, here’s one of the Elephant Feet in context, with some people for scale. The pillars are huge, seriously.

Welcome to the heart of Ancient Rome, the Forum. Couple thousand years back, you’d have seen a bunch of dudes in togas milling about, buying and selling, arguing about politics and religion, and so on.

Yeah, so not much changes, except thankfully for better hygiene. Not sure whether I’m glad or not that Emperor Vespasian introducing pay-only public toilets (still referred to locally as Vespasiana).

Roman Forum II

Here’s a view in infrared from the entrance from nearer the south end, looking northward. The remains of the Temple of Vesta are on the left, and the Temple of Caesar on the right.

Roman Forum III

And here’s another of the Temple of Caesar, from the front.

Roman Forum IV

This is actually outside the forum. Looking toward the middle, you’ll see a smaller arch (the Arch of Titus, wherein is depicted the sack of Jerusalem in the 1st century). That’s the southern end of the forum. The larger arch in the foreground is the more famous Arch of Constantine, and the photos taken from the 3rd level of the colosseum.

Roman Forum V

And some ground level color, from within the forum proper.

Roman Forum VI

And finally, this is from the top of Palatine Hill (behind the Temple of Vesta), where the likes of Augustus lived. Not a bad view from pup here, huh?

Side note, I was expecting much gnarlier hills in Rome. Guess that’s what seeing San Francisco as a child gets me. Palatine’s nothing next to Taylor Street!

The “something old” I’m referring to is stereotypes. Because really, Italy + romance = cliche, no? When I was wandering the basilica gardens at the top of Aventine Hill, this couple really stood out in the early morning gloom with St. Peter’s in the background.

I thought about it before bothering with the shot, since it does have a “been there done that” quality to it. But then again, so do postcard shots, and that’s no reason to stop doing those, so I figured, what the hell, go for it – and play around and see what I can get.

Happily, the couple in question was utterly oblivious. As well they should have been.

So here’s an alternate version …

Happy Couple, Vertical Shot

And a wider shot, but in infrared …

Happy Couple, Infrared

The top shot is definitely the more stereotypical, but I really like the 3rd one as well.

Now onto something new … starting next week, I’m going to commence a new project: photographing day to day activities and trying to make them look interesting. I expect I’ll be doing more post-production and more shots on my phone, but I’m curious to see what I can come up with. That, and no travel plans for a few months, boo! But the next trip DID just get paid for, so time to plan, plan, plan for that one …

Anniversary time! This is actually the 100th post on this blog, not that I was even sure we’d get to that point. And in keeping with that, the above is one of the 1st shots I posted here, from a trip that was (gasp!) nearing 10 years ago.

At the time, I knew next to jack squat about photography, aside from that I was getting into it seriously. Mostly, I got lucky with this – I think I was even shooting on full auto! But over time I’ve been able to go back and refine in Photoshop, and I’m pretty happy with the result. It definitely captures the spirit of the moment, between storms on a beach in the Caribbean, with some boats anchored in the bay.

A good beginning, that’s over time become a recurrent source of leaning and inspiration, not unlike this blog itself! The drive to post here weekly has been a big motivator for me in forcing me to get out and shoot, or play with what I’ve got. And to plan in advance if I’m travelling, to see what I can get to that’s interesting!

As I’m given to understand, this was basically the heart and soul of the city in its heyday, bustling with commerce and debate, vote-getting or -stealing (not much has changed in democracy!), and so forth.

The Agora

It’s a large space, and very, very pretty. Full of both the old – temples, ruins of buildings, and so on – and the new – olive trees and other flora – it’s also a wonderfully quiet place early in the morning under a light rain.

The Acropolis

It’s got great views from some of the higher spots, and when it’s quiet like it blessedly was the day I was there, it’s downright meditative. And all it took was a willingness to deal with a bit of drizzle here and there! Well worth that, I say.

Chapel Among the Olive Trees

And even the detail work in small, otherwise unnoticed areas is lovely. Sometimes it’s worth putting away all the complex machinations of photography and just going with what’s in front of you.

My point in this post is to mention a few things about how “working the scene” (fancy photographer speak) is a great way of moving around and finding new and interesting views of the same thing.

Take the shot above, from the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens. This is near the entrance. There’s really not a whole heck of a lot going on at this site (what you see is largely what you get). But by moving about, I got a few other interesting photos.

As promised, the next edition of crowds – St. Peter’s and Sistine Chapel version.

If anything these are even more crowded than the rest of the Vatican, and for good reason. Everyone and their brother has heard of Michelangelo’s ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and wants to see it for themselves. But to be honest, after all the buildup, it’s a bit of a disappointment because (1) yeah, it’s freakin’ crowded, (2) it’s at the end of a long tour and I was bushed already, and (3) no photos allowed, and they mean it. Mainly because the Fuji film company paid for a bunch of the restoration and owns the photographic rights for a long time. Very nice place, though, I’d love to go back when my mind is fresh and I have binoculars to better pick out the detail (it’s a high ceiling).

St Peters, Main Area

So on to St. Peter’s! It doesn’t’ seem as crowded, mainly because it’s gigantic in every dimension. You could easily fit the population of a small town in there and not feel crowded.

Word of warning though – it is free to go to (it’s a church after all), so it’s a big draw for pickpockets looking for sucker tourists. Mind yourself and your gear in that crowd!

To get good shots you’ll have to be patient, and work your way to the front of the line to see the impressive stuff. Or have long arms and steady hands. Or if you have REALLY well trained children who know how to follow directions, put ’em on your shoulders and have them shoot it.

Pieta

Here’s the original of Micelangelo’s Pieta, that I showed a reproduction of last post, now behind glass ‘cuz some nutso took a hammer to Jesus’ hand a few years back and knocked off some fingers. Stupid asshat. Pretty sure that’s a few extra years in Purgatory right there.

This place will take a lot of time to work your way through, especially if you want a good photo or two that doesn’t come from the gift shop or a tourist stand in the city. It’s worth the wait, though, and this is one of the few places you CAN stop and think and reshoot as needed, without issue.

St Peters, exterior, IR

Happy shooting!

PS for your extra little bit of Italy … when eating lunch afterward, we asked for water and were kindly reminded by our waitress – “water is for shower, drink wine!”